Elden Ring players find a way to beat the game without taking or dealing damage

Elden Ring has spurred some completionist runs that go far beyond a simple speedrun. Like in other FromSoftware titles in the Soulsborne universe, players have been attempting some unbelievable runs in Elden Ring. Two separate players recently completed equally impressive runs, with one player beating the game while not taking any damage and the other getting to the end credits without dealing any damage themselves.

The first run to happen was Twitch streamer Seki not taking any damage throughout the entire game. While other players, like streamer GinoMachino, have completed no-damage runs before, Seki took it a step further. They didn’t take a hit of damage whatsoever, whether it was from fall damage or being poisoned, from scarlet rot or anything else. To make matters more impressive, the streamer completed this run in three hours flat.

Seki said they spent 130 hours preparing for the run. This included devising strategies for getting around the more difficult parts of Elden Ring and going on various runs to test out these strategies. The streamer was interviewed by Kotaku and said they couldn’t use certain in-game items to buff their stats.

One popular item to use for this kind of run is the Red-Feathered Branchsword. This item buffs players’ damage output if they have low health. Other players who attempted a no-damage run would take fall or poison damage to take full advantage of this item. Of course, Seki was determined to not take a single hit of damage the entire game.

Seki’s most challenging obstacle during the run was defeating the final boss in Elden Ring. The Elden Beast has an attack, Elden Stars, that seems to be unavoidable at times since it targets the player no matter how much they dodge. But Seki found a way to avoid it enough to take down the final boss and complete the run.

The second miraculous run that was completed recently was by Iron Pineapple, a YouTube streamer. They defeated Elden Ring without dealing damage themselves, otherwise known as the pacifist run. This essentially means they had their Spirit Ash summons do all the work for them.

Iron Pineapple chose the Prophet as their starting class, which gives them immediate access to a healing Incantation they can use to heal their summons in battle. The streamer mainly dumped their Attribute points into Faith to further boost their ability to heal and buff their Spirit Ashes when fighting an enemy.

But a summon wasn’t always required to get past an enemy. Sometimes, Iron Pineapple would use “cheese” strategies to defeat a boss or enemy. This included getting a knight to jump off a cliff or using glitches to make enemies fall through the map.

Both runs are equally impressive and should spur others within the community to complete the run themselves or perhaps combine them for the ultimate Elden Ring playthrough.